Annie spoke with her parents, counselor and a teacher, and also consulted the College Navigator search tool. When she was done, she added a number of new colleges to her list (noted in blue).

Annie's second college list:

Amherst College
Carleton College
Colorado College
Grinnell College
Kenyon College
Lewis & Clark College
Middlebury College
Oberlin College
Occidental College
Pomona College
Scripps College
Smith College
Stanford University
St. Olaf College
Swarthmore College
Vassar College
Wellesley College
Whitman College
Williams College

RESEARCHING THE COLLEGES
The goal of researching colleges is to learn as much as you can about what colleges offer students in general, and also what individual colleges offer you specifically.

Here are some ways to research colleges:

1. College Admissions Guides
A good place to start your college research is with one or more books about colleges and college admissions.

a. Subjective Admissions Guides
Subjective admissions guides are the most useful of all the books. They offer written reviews of colleges by students and/or other knowledgeable people. You can get a real feeling for colleges if you read The Fiske Guide to Colleges, The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges or College’s That Change Lives.

One way of making creative use of the subjective guides is to turn to the colleges that interest you and highlight in one color the things you like, and in another color the things that you don’t like. You will soon see that some colleges will have a lot more of one or the other color and that will be a telltale sign. The pages filled with highlights of things you like are the colleges to keep on your list and further research. This is not idle work; you will be able to use the highlighted information when you answer the college application questions about why you want to attend a certain college.

adMISSION POSSIBLE® TIP! If you happen to live near a college or university, their bookstores tend to stock the largest, most up-to-date supply of admissions books.

You can also find admissions books in local book stores, online on amazon.com and other book sites, in public libraries and in high school guidance and career centers.